HMO Conversions Ealing

HMO conversion in Ealing starts with planning, because the council has removed the permitted development right to turn a dwelling into a small HMO across the borough outside Perivale ward and the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation area. After planning comes licensing: Ealing runs mandatory and additional HMO licensing, and sets its own room and amenity standards. We build shared houses, and upgrade existing ones, to the consented plans and the licence conditions that the landlord or their agent secures.

In Ealing, a light HMO conversion for four to six tenants typically costs £40,000 to £75,000 in construction, or £90,000 to £150,000 with an en-suite to every bedroom (indicative London ranges, Mayfair Studio and LetCompliance, 2026). GS Renovation Ltd, a building contractor based in Potters Bar, does the work in Ealing: we build the fire doors, detection, bathrooms and kitchens to the council's HMO standards, the landlord applies for the licence, and a registered electrician certifies the electrics.

Ealing's HMO Article 4 directions and what they change

Across Ealing outside two excluded areas, turning a house into a small shared house now needs planning permission. Class L of the General Permitted Development Order allows a change from a C3 dwellinghouse to a C4 HMO without an application. Ealing's immediate Article 4 direction removing that right came into force on 30 October 2024, and its non-immediate direction followed on 14 November 2025. The non-immediate direction covers the borough except Perivale ward and the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation area, so the address decides which rules apply.

Even where Class L still applies in Ealing, it has limits. It does not permit a building previously used as a single dwellinghouse to become two or more separate C4 HMOs. The London Plan glossary defines HMOs for three to six people as Use Class C4 and HMOs for more than six people as Sui Generis, so a large shared house needs planning permission anywhere in the borough. London Plan Policy H9 says boroughs should take account of the role of HMOs in meeting housing needs, and that HMOs of a reasonable standard should generally be protected.

Housing in Ealing

Count the homes in Ealing and you get about 149,900: 42% built since 1945, 30% between the wars and 28% before 1919, with flats at 54% and houses at 46%.

What an Ealing HMO planning application has to show

The council's HMO planning guidance targets one kind of scheme in Ealing: a dwelling in C3 becoming a small C4 shared house for 3 to 6 occupants. A Management Plan should go in with the application, and where public transport access is high (PTAL) or a controlled parking zone (CPZ) applies, the guidance says a car-free or car-lite scheme is normally expected. Applications are assessed against the London Plan 2021, including Policy H9, and Ealing's Development Management DPD 2013. The owner or their agent prepares and submits the application, and we supply the programme and method statement and build to their designer's drawings.

Ealing's likely conditions include approved plans that fix room sizes and prevent later subdivision, so the layout we build has to match the consented drawings room for room. A change after approval, even moving one partition, can mean going back to planning. Ealing also intends to bring forward an HMO supplementary planning document once its new Local Plan is adopted, so the guidance may tighten. We check the approved plans against the site before the first stud goes up.

Room sizes and shared space in an Ealing HMO

Ealing sets hard minimums for shared houses. A room under 6.5m2 in floor area is never permitted as sleeping accommodation in an HMO, a bedroom can be occupied by at most two people, and no bedroom may be reached through a shared kitchen. Nationally, mandatory licences require at least 6.51 square metres for one adult and 10.22 for two, and no room under 4.64 square metres may be slept in. Ealing also expects HMO bedrooms to meet the minimum sizes in the Nationally Described Space Standard and the London Plan housing design guidance. It does not count floor area where the ceiling is lower than 1.5m when setting occupant numbers, which matters under sloping roofs.

The mandatory scheme stops short of flats in purpose-built blocks of three or more self-contained flats, which only an additional licensing scheme can catch.

Shared rooms follow the headcount. Ealing requires 1 kitchen and 1 bathroom per 5 occupiers, and its HMO planning guidance sets a minimum combined living, dining and kitchen area of 25 sqm for 3 people rising to 31 sqm for 6 people. On an Ealing terrace that can mean the back reception stays as a shared kitchen and living room rather than becoming another bedroom, and a second bathroom goes into the back addition. We plan the drainage and extraction for those rooms first, because they fix where the soil stack runs.

Licensing and fire safety for an Ealing shared house

Licensing sits alongside planning and is the landlord's responsibility. Ealing states that mandatory HMO licensing applies where five or more persons not living as a single household share facilities. It adopted an additional HMO licensing scheme from 1 April 2022 covering HMOs let to 3 or 4 unrelated individuals, and that designation covers the whole borough and ceases to have effect on 31 March 2027 unless revoked earlier. Ealing ran a consultation on additional HMO licensing from 15 July 2026 to 24 September 2026, so check the current position before letting.

Fire safety is where an Ealing HMO conversion spends most of its effort. The usual package is fire doors with self-closers to every bedroom and the kitchen, an interlinked detection and alarm system, a protected escape route down the stairs, and fire-stopping where services pass through floors. The council's licence conditions and the LACORS housing fire safety guidance set the detail, and Part B applies where building work is done. Sound insulation between lettings and a valid EPC for letting complete the handover file.

• Insulation and heating upgrades toward the minimum EPC for letting
• Service holes sealed so each bedroom and the kitchen stay separate fire compartments
• Thumb-turn bedroom locks that open from inside without a key

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 41 statistical areas in Ealing. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Related reading for Ealing landlords planning hmo conversions: bathroom renovation in Ealing, our Ealing area guide, what a main building contractor does, kitchen fitting in London, how we handle hmo conversions across London and Kitchen Renovation Cost.

Why Choose GS Renovation in Ealing

An HMO is judged twice, once by the planners and again by the licensing inspector, so the build has to satisfy both. GS Renovation's founder and director, Abdelaaziz Saaid, has more than three decades of hands-on building work behind him. For an Ealing shared house we build to the consented room sizes and install the fire doors, detection and escape routes the licence calls for. We keep the certificates from the registered electrician and the engineer on the Gas Safe register together for the landlord's licence file.

• Honest updates if a date or a detail has to move
• Kitchens and bathrooms counted against the council's amenity standard
• Article 4 and licence position checked before a room is priced

Checked by Abdelaaziz Saaid, founder and director of GS Renovation Ltd (Companies House no. 14611254).